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Time to stop the plunder
One of my vivid boyhood memories is of scrambling amongst granite outcrops of the Canadian Shield in the shimmering heat of a July afternoon.
I emerged from the forest into mottled sunshine and stretched out on flat, lichen-covered rocks, high above the black waters of a quiet lake. Stately white pines touched the sky. Underfoot was a cushion of sharply perfumed pine needles. The air was calm.
That moment of perfection emerges still on those rare occasions when I am able to venture into the woods. But the truth is that like many of us in our modern world I’m a city guy. Most of the trees I encounter are in my local park.
And that’s a problem. Because we’re losing our intimate relationship and understanding of forests as the world urbanizes. We don’t see the clear-cut hillsides, the splintered stumps and the plunder. They are outside our field of vision. Partly this stems from our mistaken sense that the natural wealth of the planet is boundless and inexhaustible. But this is folly.
As this month’s Big Story argues, we can no longer afford to cut-and-run. The forces that are destroying the world’s last ancient forests need to be resisted, and the communities whose lives and culture are rooted there, defended. At stake is nothing less than the ability of the land, water and wildlife to provide for future generations.
Elsewhere in this issue we welcome the return of New Zealand-based contributor, John F Schumaker, who explains the difference between depression and demoralization in our modern consumer culture. n wayne elLwood for the New Internationalist Co-operative newint.org
This month’s contributors include:
Diana Beresford-Kroeger, medical biochemist, classical botanist and award-winning author of numerous books and articles published worldwide, is just completing a film, Call of the Forest: The Forgotten Wisdom of Trees, based on her book, The Global Forest.
Chris Lang is an environmental activist, researcher and writer. He took part in the British anti-roads protests at Twford Down, Newbury, and Leytonstone, and since the mid-1990s has focused on forests.
Sabita Banerji grew up on tea plantations in Kerala and Assam and witnessed last year’s Pembilla Orumai (Women’s Unity) uprising. She works in London on ethical trade issues and campaigns for Indian tea workers’ rights. She blogs at orumai.org John F Schumaker is a retired clinical psychologist, academic and author living in Christchurch, New Zealand/Aotearoa. His books include The Age of Insanity, The Corruption of Reality and, most recently, In Search of Happiness: Understanding an Endangered State of Mind.
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Helen Wallis For New Internationalist helen.wallis@newint.org
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